Nitin Khanna: An NRI who made it big in Portland, Oregon

Nitin Khanna has been one of the most eminent names in the industry, in news for all the best reasons. Nitin Khanna started his entrepreneurial calling in 1998 as the co-founder of Saber Corp., a tech giant which he grew to become the largest stand alone provider of the state government solutions in the US by 2007, growing it to an employee count of 1200 and revenue over $120MM. He then made large by selling this organization to EDS for $460MM, a price four times its revenue. At EDS, he retained the leadership of the government business operations and again grew it to stand at $300MM in revenue with an employee base of 1500.

Nitin Khanna gave all that up in a now-or-never moment to embark on his entrepreneurial journey. For his own big entrepreneurial foray, he chose the niche segment of mergers and acquisitions, and set up MergerTech, an international M&A advisory organization that helps technology entrepreneurs in magnifying their outcome by finding the best strategic or financial acquirer for them.

Born to an Army family in India, Nitin has always been a believer of the quote “Success comes to those who take risks at the right time.” Being at Saber Corp, Nitin led as many as 8 mergers and acquisitions, and this experience is what got him started with MergerTech.

Started in 2009, MergerTech is a boutique technology treasury that provides mergers & acquisitions advice. A key advantage for the clients at MergerTech is the personalized and comprehensive consultation that Nitin offers to them, something based on his domain expertise and past viable and M&A experiences. MergerTech’s vision over the last few years has been that non-technology and non-US buyers are likely to pay more for technology startups in US than huge IT companies in US.

This is the vision that incited Nitin Khanna to advice on the sale of Simple, a fintech startup, to BBVA, a Spanish bank, or the sale of Mutual Mobile, mobile software developer, to WPP, a British advertisement agency. In both the cases, as well as in many others, the price that Nitin attained for his clients was way much higher than what a usual buyer would have paid. For the sale of Simple, the Wall Street Journal quoted it as the highest value ever obtained for a customer in an M&A pact. Similarly, 451 Research named MergerTech as the No. 1 dealmaker bank, ahead of the leading names like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.

Making India proud, Nitin has always believed in his potential and in his dreams. Today, he stands among the select few NRIs who have made it big in the US. Of late, Nitin Khanna has decided to step into the medical and recreational and medical cannabis industry. The cannabis industry is a $100BB industry that is expeditiously shifting from the gray to the legal market. In 2015, he ventured into this industry with Cura Cannabis Solutions and has already steered it to be the best cannabis oil provider companies in Oregon. He further plans to grow this organization to Canada and California and believes that it can be named among the largest cannabis providing companies in the world.

Nitin is quite alive in the civic community and is known for his charitable nature. For work, apart from MergerTech and Cura Cannabis, he sits on the advisory boards of Freewire Broadbank, TiE Oregon, The Classic Wines auction, Vendscreen and standoff companies in cloud spaces, mobile and social.

Nitin Khanna’s expertise and experience, strategizing and negotiation skills, passion and culture of service have set a new benchmark for the M&A transactions. His personal and professional values are admired and looked to by every budding entrepreneur in Portland, Oregon.